Time to Revisit Strategies for Child and Family Mental Health

FAMILY MATTERS

6 Back to School: Time to Revisit Strategies for Child and Family Mental Health

BY NICOLE RACINE, DILLON THOMAS BROWNE & STEPHANIE G. CRAIG THE CONVERSATION

The last two years have been far from normal for children and families. As households prepare for back-to-school, there can be some apprehension of what the year will bring. Our research has shown that children, teens and parents have struggled with regards to mental health during the pandemic, where higher levels of pandemicrelated stress corresponded to more mental health difficulties in families. Although there are many aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic that are not in our control, it is important to focus on the things that are. Research shows that negative mental health outcomes in the face of stress are not inevitable based on external factors alone. There are important strategies families can use to help promote mental health. Family routines can provide stability during times of stress and are generally important for children’s mental health and have shown to be protective for children’s mental health during the COVID19 pandemic. As child psychologists and researchers, we review the scientific evidence for strategies that are associated with positive child and family mental health. These are the strategies that we universally recommend and share with the children, teens, and families we work with in our clinical practice to inoculate against stress and family challenges.

1. Social and emotional connections Humans are social beings and over the last two years we have experienced limitations and restrictions on our ability to maintain and develop social connections. Research during the pandemic showed that youth who felt socially connected were protected against poor mental health. Therefore, creating opportunities for children and youth to feel connected within their families and with their peers are critical for promoting well-being. For children and teens, family social and emotional connections are equally, if not more important as friendships in helping children protect their mental health. During the pandemic, teens who felt stress at home had more mental health problems. At home, fostering social connection and understanding can be achieved through spending time together engaging in mutually enjoyable activities. Ensuring that there is time to listen to your child talk about their day, process events and emotions from school, and engage in supportive problem solving is critical. When listening to your child or teen talk about their day, it is important to listen and understand first before engaging in any problem solving. Often children can feel better after discussing their emotions without needing to problem solve. Natural opportunities for these connection times include during mealtime, car rides or commutes, and before bed. There are resources that provide suggestions for initiating supportive conversations with your kids.

2. Coaching to cope with big and small worries Worrying can be a natural response to uncertainty, which has become more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic. One habit that can help mitigate children’s worries from developing further is teaching them to cope with big and small worries as they come. continued on page 7

Child and Family Mental Health continued from page 6 Talking about, labelling and validating worries is an important first step. Next, help them think through how they might respond if their worry came true, how likely their worry is to occur, and evidence that disproves their worry. Modelling how you identify, address and cope with your own worries can serve as an important example for your child. In fact, our research demonstrates that coping ability predicted better mental health for parents throughout the pandemic, as well. There are many resources and free apps available for helping your child to cope with worries and anxiety.

3. Schedule time for physical activity each day Physical activity is an important determinant of mental health and well-being for both children and adults. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a 20 per cent decrease in children’s physical activity levels, particularly among individuals living in countries with colder climates. We recommend starting with a small goal to start, such as going for a walk after dinner. Being successful in a small goal helps to increase motivation going forward. Making changes to how you travel to school or extra-curricular activities (for example, walking or riding a bike) can also be an easy way to increase activity. As the weather gets colder, consider changing to indoor swim and recreational activities. Year-round outdoor activities also provide an opportunity for safe physical activity and social engagement despite evolving risks with the COVID19 pandemic.

4. Protect good quality sleep for children and family members Sleep is fundamental to mental health and well-being. Nearly half of parents reported their child’s sleep worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic in part due to reduced physical activity, increased screen time and heightened anxiety. Guidelines recommend that children get eight to 11 hours of sleep per night, and adults get at least seven hours. It can be helpful to work back from the time your child needs to wake up and work towards an appropriate bedtime. This can often mean starting a bedtime routine and getting ready for bed before we think we need to. Having a good sleep hygiene regime can help anyone who has trouble getting to sleep. This can include avoiding caffeine late in the day, avoiding screens an hour before bed and having the same routine every night (for example, shower, pajamas, brush teeth, read a story or book, bed).l Nicole Racine is an Assistant professor, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa. Dillon Thomas Browne is an Assistant Professor, Psychology, University of Waterloo. Stephanie G. Craig is a Research assistant professor, University of Guelph.

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Biden Administration Close to Reaching Increased Cap on Employment-Based Green Cards

BY WALTER EWING

The Biden administration is close to using all of the employmentbased immigrant visas (green cards) allotted for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that as of August 31, a total of 263,510 employment-based immigrant visas had been used this fiscal year (FY)—close to the limit of 281,507. This is a dramatic improvement over last year when tens of thousands of available visas went unused. But it doesn’t eliminate the massive backlogs of visa applications from some countries. Under current immigration law, the number of immigrant visas is capped each year at 480,000 for family-based immigrants, 140,000 for employmentbased immigrants, and 55,000 for winners of the Diversity Visa lottery. However, if any family-based visas go unused by the end of the year, that number of unused visas is added to the cap for employment-based immigrants the following year. Any unused employment-based visas are simply lost. Large numbers of immigrant visas went unused after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In spring of that year, U.S. embassies and consulates around the world closed in response to the pandemic. The Trump administration also issued an immigrant visa ban, targeting specific categories of individuals for exclusion who otherwise qualify to come to the U.S. under current law. As a result, roughly 122,000 family-based visas allotted for FY 2020 went unused. That number was added to the employmentbased visa allotment for FY 2021, bringing the total for that year to more than 262,000. Last year, with the effects of the COVID pandemic still rippling through the system, the Biden administration failed to use 66,781 of the available employment-based visas for FY 2021 and 141,430 of the available familybased visas. The unused employmentbased visas were lost, while the unused family-based visas were added to the allotment of employment-based visas for FY 2022. This brought the number of available employment-based visas in FY 2022 to a record high of 281,507. As of August 31, the Department of State had issued 263,510 employmentbased visas, meaning that the agency will close out the fiscal year having issued all available employment-based visas. However, an estimated 60,000 familybased immigrant visas will go unused this year and will be added to the employment-based visa cap for FY 2023. This will further extend long-growing backlogs in the family-based immigration process by further building on the losses from the prior two years. Although this is a major improvement over last year, it does not eliminate the enormous backlogs and wait times experienced by visa applicants from particular countries. Current immigration law limits the number of permanent immigrants from any one country to no more than 7 percent of the total number of immigrants who come to the United States in a single year. This arbitrary cap severely limits immigration from countries with extensive economic and social ties to the United States—particularly family-based immigrants from Mexico and employmentbased immigrants from India and China. For instance, some applicants face expected waits of as high as 46 years. If anything, the current backlog calculations underestimate the overall delays in the system. Another measure of the backlog is the large number of cases in which the Department of Homeland Security has approved an immigrant visa application, but the applicants are waiting for an interview at the U.S. consulate in their home country. According to the State Department, there were 416,856 such cases as of August 31. The Biden administration must make enough resources available for visa processing to ensure that each year’s allotment of immigrant visas is actually used. Congress should also pass legislation authorizing the recapture of immigrant visas that were lost in previous years, which would help reduce the backlog of visa applications.l